While all fires cannot be prevented, anything that can be done to slow the spread of a fire can considerably save valuable property, not to mention lives. Building fires, once ignited, can spread quickly throughout the building from room to room or floor to floor. Many methods and devices have been conceived and are presently in use to impede the process of a fire as much as possible. Such things as fire retarding doors and walls can significantly slow the progress of a fire. Dampers that automatically close during a fire have also been helpful.
Fire doors and walls are constructed of dense material that will not burn easily and that will slow the progress of a fire sufficiently to minimize damage. Such doors and walls are required between garage areas and the living areas of residential properties because of the significant danger of fire in garages. It is safe to say that more fires probably start in garage areas than anywhere else in the home. by impeding the progress of a fire properly, more lives may be saved. Slowing down the spread of fire often gives fire fighters that extra period of time that can be the difference between a total loss and a substantial savings in loss of life and valuable property.
A lack of combustible material or oxygen can impede the progress of a fire and prevent a total loss of life and valuable property.
A lack of combustible material can slow down a fire, and a lack of oxygen can quickly snuff out a fire. Where there is a combustible material the spreading of a fire in a building or home can depend upon the fires voracious appetite for oxygen. Fires that may not be much more than smoldering embers will almost literally explode with a huge dose of oxygen. For that reason, fire fighters are very cautious about opening doors and windows because the rush of air can fan the flames from a relentless burn to a roaring inferno. Cut off or reduce the air, and the fire can only spread slowly.
It is a fire's voracious appetite for air that makes heating and cooling ducts a ready avenue for the spread of fires. With fire walls and doors impeding the progress of a fire, the flames will rush to any source of oxygen available. As a fire "licks up" available oxygen, any opening becomes a conduit for the flames to spread. The consumption of available oxygen will cause a rush of air through these openings to feed the fire which will then rapidly advance through the opening to "gobble-up" the air. Thus, heating and air conditioning ducts become a pathway to the rapid spread of building and home fires. A great deal of valuable property has been lost due to the spread of fires through these ducts. Adjoining buildings or rooms could be saved were it not for this ready pathway for the fire to spread. For that reason, it would be advantageous to provide a heating and air conditioning duct that retards the spread of fires.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a heating and cooling duct that blocks the path of a fire and retards its spread by roaring down the duct to adjoining buildings or rooms.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a heating and cooling duct that collapses to prevent the spread of fire.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a heating or cooling duct that literally melts at a temperature substantially below the combustion or melting temperature of a building heating and cooling duct it is connected to in order to retard the spread of a fire.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a heating and cooling flexible duct formed of the wire reinforced duct core and wrapped with a heat meltable material that quickly disintegrates from the heat of a fire.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a heat meltable flexible duct section that can be connected between an air supply or return to connect the existing duct. A three to six foot section should be sufficient to retard spreading of a fire to adjacent areas or buildings.